The tea is a dark brown with deep red undertones. It smells like the dried leaves did. It is like someone stuck a campfire in the tea cup. Breathing it in it is as though you are sitting right in front of a fire. The tea is warm, not heat warm or spice warm. It has a flavor profile that is warm and makes you feel warm from the inside out. This would not be a tea that would make a lot of sense to try to make into an iced tea because of this warm flavor. It does sort of taste like drinking smoke. All the flavor of campfire or barbecue smoke is mixed up in the flavors of this drink. It’s not a sweet taste, although the start of it could be considered a little sweet, moving down into the a nutty and light flavor. This is a very thick tea, it sits heavy in your stomach. At the same time, it is surprisingly smooth.